The Supreme Court of Canada hasn’t has much of a chance to look closely at the legalities and constitutionality of post-September 11, 2001 legislation and systems to deal with terrorist threats. Canada’s top court is looking at the constitutional challenge to the “security certificate” process over the next three daysFor background see CTV’s site , Radio-Canada and the CBC’s backgrounder.

Despite appearances, this confrontation isn’t rooted in the lengthy detentions of Adil Charkoui, Mohammed Harkat and Hassan Almrei. Instead, the deeper cause is an intelligence service at odds with a system that lets rejected refugees linger in Canada for years and sometimes decades.

The legal background is well described in the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Brief to Parliament.